1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital lighting apparatus for a vehicle, a controller for the digital lighting apparatus, and a control program for the digital lighting apparatus.
2) Description of the Related Art
In this specification, “a system including a digital lighting apparatus, a digital lighting apparatus controller, and a control program of the digital lighting apparatus” will be generically referred to as “digital lighting system”.
Throughout the whole specification, “a road surface and the like” refers to a road surface, a person (such as a pedestrian), and objects (such as a preceding vehicle, an oncoming vehicle, road signs, and buildings), etc.
Further, “upper”, “lower”, “left”, “right”, and “inclined” in the specification refer to directions of “upper”, “lower”, “left”, “right”, and “inclined” when the digital lighting system or the digital lighting apparatus is loaded on a vehicle, respectively.
A digital lighting apparatus that illuminates a road surface and the like in a predetermined light distribution pattern using a reflection type digital light deflector is well known. The digital lighting apparatus of this type is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-104288, German Patent Publication No. DE 195 30 008 A1 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,319, and U.S. patent Publication No. 5,938,319.
The digital lighting apparatus includes a light source that emits light, a reflector that reflects the light from the light source, and a reflection type light guiding unit that reflects the light from the light source and the reflector. When the light source is turned on, the light emitted from the light source is reflected by the reflector and reflected light is reflected by the reflection type light guiding unit to illuminate the road surface and the like.
However, data for controlling the reflection light guiding device is not at all considered in the conventional digital lighting apparatus. For this reason, the conventional digital lighting apparatus has a disadvantage that a digitally controlled, predetermined light distribution pattern is not obtained for sure.